India, Nepal discuss border issues at BWG meet

Kathmandu: Seeking to resolve longstanding border issues, the first meeting of the Nepal-India Boundary Working Group (BWG) established after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent visit to Nepal, began here on Wednesday.

The main agenda of the BWG's first meeting is to finalize its own composition and terms of reference as well as of its subsidiary mechanisms, according to a statement issued by Nepal's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The BWG was constituted this year to undertake field works related to the India-Nepal border.The meet is scheduled to conclude on Friday.

This mechanism will take up the works that have remained incomplete since the expiration, in 2007, of the mandate of the Joint Technical-level Nepal-India Boundary Committee that was established in 1981, the statement said.

During Prime Minister Modi's visit to Nepal last month, the two sides had agreed to set up the BWG.

The prime ministers of the two countries had underlined the need to resolve pending Nepal-India boundary issues once and for all.

According to the Department of Survey, some 2,500 border pillars need to be maintained or renovated and 400 others need to be constructed along the 1,690-km India-Nepal border.